Robert Herscu

CEO & Founder of HQ Development

Since the very beginning, Robert Herscu has actively pursued ventures where innovation, relationships, and studied foresight come together to create significant value. In his native Australia, Mr. Herscu earned a degree in Economics and Accounting at Monash University, Melbourne. After immigrating to the United States, he spent several years working in mergers and acquisitions for Shearson Lehman Brothers in New York City.
Eventually, Mr. Herscu decided to put his entrepreneurial passion into play, forming HQ Entertainment. Within a few short years, the company had turned into the largest vending company in the West Coast, owning and operating 20,000 vending machines throughout regional malls and shopping centers, including children’s rides, candy and soda machines, ATMs, and pay phones.
Honing in further on opportunities in the shopping center arena, Mr. Herscu established a Christmas and Easter holiday photo company, with sales exceeding $30 million. Capitalizing on a growing consumer demand for gift cards, he built what would become the largest independent shopping mall gift card company in the U.S., with sales exceeding $300 million. Notably, he also established the largest double-decker carousel company in U.S. during this time, with over 2 million annual riders.
The success and value created by these ventures solidified Mr. Herscu’s reputation as a sharp visionary and his relationship with leading shopping mall developers, such as Westfield, Macerich, General Growth Properties, Taubman, Vornado, Preit, CBL, Caruso and others. Prompted by the search for long-term value retention of his creative energy and capital investments, Mr. Herscu became involved in the real estate market by forming HQ Development in 2003.
At present, HQ Development holds 200,000 square feet of strip shopping centers, industrial buildings and entitled land for commercial projects. In 2012, Mr. Herscu embarked on an ambitious initiative to acquire office buildings in strong sub-markets throughout West Los Angeles, with the intent of leading the creative office niche. In less than 18 months, his firm has acquired nine buildings in this outperforming sub-sector, most which was sourced off-market, owing to his strong strategic relationships.
Since being acquired, the properties have been utterly transformed, serving the needs of top technology, entertainment, and new media firms in Los Angeles such as WPP, Warner Brothers, Scopely, HSI Productions, Lunchbox, and more. Flanked by a strong design team, Mr. Herscu’s adaptive reuse of these properties has shaped creative office space that is as inspiring as it is beautiful. Here, companies can forge their brand and let ideas collide and come to fruition.
Growing the creative office portfolio exponentially is a top priority for HQ Development. Mr. Herscu is driven to leave a distinct mark in the West Los Angeles market for creative office development over the next five years. With intimate knowledge of LA real estate, his entrepreneurial zeal, and knack for finding opportunities to create value ahead of the crowd, Mr. Herscu is optimistic and dedicated to additional successful endeavors in the future.
Finally, Mr. Herscu is active in the startup community as an angel investor and also owns the fine Italian dining restaurant, Toscanova, found at The Commons in Calabasas and at Westfield Century City Mall.